I saw an interesting advertisement on TV a few days ago and thought I would share it with those who might have not seen it. Saturn has a new protection plan for their vehicle buyers. They offer to pay up to nine months of your payments if you lose your job. I know they are trying to promote sales, but how is this going to help them? Yes, they might get a few more cars off the lot, but their company just got bailed out and is on the chopping block to be sold. There terms state: “You have to be employed for at least 30 hours per week for 90 days after you buy or lease the vehicle and for 12 consecutive weeks prior to your first day of unemployment. Then, if you lose your job due to economic conditions during the next 21 months you are eligible for benefits. If you lose your job for other reasons, you may not be covered.” How would someone go about proving they lost their job due to “economic conditions”?
Terms and Conditons
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If it is a large company that has been in the news, say Countrywide, it would be pretty obvious as to why they were laid off. If it is a smaller company, Saturn could call the manager and hope he is telling the truth.
These new add campaigns are quite hilarious. This post reminded me of the Chevy commercial with people in shirts that say "everyone." Howie Long explains that Chevy has the newest, longest, best warranty in the biz. Well, to those who may have missed it, Chevy, as it exists today, may not be there to process your claim on your new warranty, just like Saturn may not be there to make your payment. Still, they don't actually intend to make your payment, but rather allow you to not pay, so maybe it would still work since they wouldn't be asking for your money anymore anyway.
This looks like any other advertising gimmick to boost sales. I would guess that they plan to snake their way out of paying as many car payments as they can. They say this just to help ease the minds of possible consumers so they feel safer buying a car now. It might work on stupid people. I wouldn't trust them though.
I think they throw out these new offers because under those conditions they figure in the next nine months the economy will turn around and they won't have to worry about paying those payments. Once they get the car in the hands of the people it would be tough to prove in my opinion if you lost your job. Anthony said they could call a manager to find out if you lost your job, but how tough will that be to get a representitive from Saturn to call an find out that information? My opinion it would be a mess.
Hmmm. American auto companies. Hmmm.
Call me crazy, but they should be in the business of making cars. They aren't.
Let me rephrase their offer: if you buy our more costly car, we'll give you some insurance that you didn't buy before when you had the chance.
But ... this is what they've been reduced to by the bizarre regulatory and contractual environment in which they do business.
So, now that the grown-ups who hold equity in those companies have been essentially zeroed out, the government is going to push the grown-ups who hold the debt of those companies to zero themselves out, leaving the assets in the hands of government bureaucrats and unionized workers. The latter get paid more than they're worth and are grown-up enough to know it, and the former don't get paid as much as their worth so they compensate for their envy by trying to control things they don't understand.
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